Five Go Down to the Sea (7 page)

The boys pricked up their ears. „What happened?" asked Julian at once.

„Oh, he had to get up and go and spend two hours with poor Jenny," said Mrs Penruthlan.

„I woke when he left, but luckily Benny didn"t bark, and it wasn"t til two hours later he came back, he"d been sitting with the horse all that time, poor man."

Julian and Dick did not feel at al sympathetic. They knew quite well where Mr Penruthlan had been, not with the horse, that was certain! Anyway, Jenny hadn"t been il when they had looked at her in the night. What a lot of untruths!

They were puzzled. Why should Mr Penruthlan deceive his wife and tell her what wasn"t true? What had he been doing that he didn"t even want her to know?

They told the girls everything immediately after breakfast, when they went to pick currants, raspberries and plums for a fruit salad. Anne and George listened in surprise.

„You never told us you were going," said George, reproachful y. „I"d like to have come with you."

„I always thought Mr Penruthlan looked sort of strange and - and sinister," said Anne. „I"m sure he"s up to no good. What a pity. His wife is so very nice."

They went on picking the endless red-currants. Anne suddenly got the feeling that somebody was hiding somewhere near. She looked round uncomfortably. Yes, there was someone in the tall raspberry canes, she was sure! She watched.

It was Yan, of course. She might have guessed! He flashed his smile at her and came towards her. He liked Anne best of all! He held out his hand.

„No, I"ve no sweets," said Anne. „How did you get on last night in the storm, Yan? Were you frightened?"

Yan shook his head. Then he came nearer and spoke softly.

„I seen the light last night!"

Anne stared at him, astonished. What light?

„You don"t mean - the light that flashes in that old hidden tower?" she said.

He nodded. Anne went quickly to Julian and Dick, who were picking white currants and eating just about as many as they put into the basket!

„Julian! Dick! Yan says he saw that light flashing last night, the one in the tower!"

„Gosh!" said the boys together. They turned to Yan, who had followed Anne. „You saw that light?" said Julian.

Yan nodded. „Big light. Very big," he said. „Like - like a fire."

„Shining from the tower?" said Dick, and Yan nodded again.

„Did your Grandad see it?" asked Dick.

Yan nodded. „He seen it, too."

„Are you telling the truth?" demanded Julian, wondering how far he could believe Yan.

Yan nodded again.

„What time was this?" asked Dick. But that Yan couldn"t tell him. He had no watch, and if he had had, he wouldn"t have been able to use it. He couldn"t tell the time.

„Blow!" said Julian to Dick. „We missed it. If Yan"s telling the truth we would have seen that light last night."

„Yes. Well, we"ll go tonight and watch for it," said Dick, determined. „It"s a wild enough day, all wind and scurrying clouds. If that light is used at night in weather like this, we"ll be able to see it again. But I"m blessed if I can understand why the wreckers" tower should be used nowadays. No ship would take any notice of an odd light like that when they"ve got the lighthouse signal ing hard al the time!"

„I go, too," nodded Yan, who had overheard this.

„No, you won"t," said Julian. „You can stay with Grandad. He"l wonder where you are if you"re not there."

It began to rain. „Blow!" said George. „I do hope the weather hasn"t broken up. It"s been so gorgeous. It"s quite cold today with this tearing wind. Come on, let"s go in, Anne.

We"ve got enough now to feed an army, I should think!"

They all went in, just as the rain came down properly. Mrs Penruthlan greeted them in excitement.

„The Barnies want our barn for tomorrow night!" she said. „They"re giving their first show in our barn, and after that they go to another place. Would you like to help clear out the barn and get ready?"

„Rather!" said Julian. „We"ll go now. There"s a lot of stuff to clear out. Where shal we put it?

In the other barn?"

The Barnies arrived in about twenty minutes and went straight to the barn, which they had been lent several times before for their shows. They were pleased to see the children and were glad of their help.

They were no longer dressed in fancy clothes, as they had been when the children had seen them on the Sunday evening. They were practically all dressed in slacks, the women, too, ready for the hard work of clearing the barn and setting up a simple stage and background.

Julian caught sight of a horse"s head being carried in by a little nimble fel ow who pranced along with it comical y.

„What"s that for?" he said. „Oh, is that Clopper"s head? The horse that can sit down and cross its legs?"

„That"s right," said the little fel ow. „I"m in charge of it. Never let it out of my sight! Guv"nor"s orders!"

„Who"s the Guv"nor?" asked Julian. „The fel ow over there?" He nodded to a grim-faced man who was supervising the moving of some bales of straw.

„That"s him," said the little man with a grin. „His lordship himself! What do you think of my horse, chum!"

Julian looked at the horse"s head. It was beautiful y made and had a most comical look in its eye. Its mouth could open and shut, and so could its big eyes.

„I"m only the hind legs," said the little man regretful y. „But l work his tail, too. Mr Binks over there is his front legs, and works his head, the horse"s head, I mean. You should see old Clopper when he performs! My, there isn"t a horse like him in the world. He can do everything short of fly!"

„Where are his back and front legs - and - er - his body part'?" asked Dick, coming up and looking with great interest at the horse"s head.

„Over there," said the little man. „By the way, my name"s Sid. What"s yours, and how is it you"re here?"

Julian introduced himself and Dick, and explained that they were helping because they were staying at the farm. He caught hold of a bale of straw, thinking it was about time he did some work.

„Like to give me a hand?" he asked.

Sid shook his head.

„Sorry. Orders are I"m not to put this horse"s head down anywhere. Where I go, it goes! I can tel you, me and Clopper are quite attached to one another!"

„Why? Is it so valuable?" asked Dick.

„It"s not so much that," said Sid. „It"s just that Clopper"s so popular, you know. And he"s important. You see, whenever we think the show"s flopping a bit, we bring Clopper on, and then we get the laughs and the claps, and the audience is in a good temper. Oh, Clopper"s saved the show times without number. He"s a jolly good horse is Clopper."

Mr Binks came up. He was bigger than Sid and much stronger. He grinned at the two boys. „Admiring old Clopper?" he said. „Did Sid tell you about the time Clopper"s head dropped off the wagon and we didn"t miss him til we were miles away? My word, what a state the Guv"nor was in! Said we couldn"t give a show without Clopper, and nearly gave us all the sack!"

„We"re important, we are," said Sid, throwing out his chest and doing a funny little strut with the horse"s head in front of him. „Me and Binks and Clopper - no show without us!"

„Don"t you put that horse down even for a moment," warned Mr Binks. „The Guv"nor"s got his eye on you, Sid. Look, he"s calling you."

Sid went over to the Guv"nor, looking rather alarmed. He carried the horse"s head safely under his arm.

The grim-faced man said a few sharp words and Sid nodded. Julian went up to him when he came back. „Let me feel how heavy the horse"s head is," he said. „I"ve often wondered, when I"ve seen something like this on the stage."

Sid immediately put the horse under his other arm, and glared at Julian, looking round quickly to see if the Guv"nor had heard.

„That"s a fool thing to ask me," he said. „After I"ve told you I"m not al owed to put the horse down! And didn"t the Guv"nor just this minute say to me “Keep away from those kids, you know what tricks they"re up to. They"l have that horse away from you if you"re not careful.” See? Do you want me to lose my job?"

Julian laughed. „Don"t be sil y. You wouldn"t lose your job for that! When are you and Mr Binks going to do a bit of practice? We want to see you!"

„Oh well, we could manage that al right," said Sid, calming down. „Here, Binks. Bit of practice wanted. Get the legs."

Binks and Sid went to a cleared space in the big barn and proceeded to clothe themselves in the horse"s canvas skin and legs. Sid showed the boys how he worked the tail with one of his hands when he wanted to.

Binks put on the head and the front legs. His head only went into the neck of the horse, no farther. He was able to use his hands for pul ing strings to open the horse"s mouth and work its rolling eyes.

Sid got his legs in the horse"s back legs, bent over and put his head and arms over towards Binks, so making the horse"s back. Somebody came up and zipped up the two halves of the horse"s „skin".

„Oh! What a jolly good horse!" said Dick, delighted. It looked a lively, comical, extremely supple beast, and the two men inside at once proceeded to make it do ridiculous things.

It marched - left-right, left-right, left-right. It did a little tap-dance with its front feet, which then remained perfectly stil , and then the back feet did the same little tap-dance.

The back feet got themselves entangled and fel over, and the horse"s head looked round at itself in astonishment.

Al four children were now watching, and Yan was peeping in at the door. They roared with laughter at the ridiculous horse.

It took its tail in its mouth and marched round and round itself. It stood up on its hind legs only. It jumped like a kangaroo, and made peculiar noises. The whole company stood and watched and even the grim-faced Guv"nor had to smile.

Then it sat down on its hind-legs and crossed its front ones in the air, looking round comical y. It then gave an enormous yawn that showed dozens of large teeth.

„Oh, don"t do any more!" cried Anne, who was weak with laughing. „Don"t! Oh, I can quite well see how important you are, Clopper! You"l be the best part of the show!"

It was a mad, gay morning, for the Barnies were ful of chatter and jokes and laughter. Sid and Binks took off their horse garments, and Sid thereupon went about as before, the horse"s head, grinning comical y, tucked safely under his arm.

Mrs Penruthlan cal ed the children in to dinner. Yan ran after Julian, and caught hold of his arm.

„I seen that light," he said, urgently. „You come, see it tonight. Don"t forget. I seen that light!"

Julian had forgotten it in the excitement of the morning. He grinned down at the small boy.

„Al right, al right. I won"t forget. We"re coming along tonight, but you"re not coming, Yan, so get that out of your head! Look, here"s a sweet for you. Now, scoot!"

By the end of the day the big barn was quite transformed! It had been cleared of al straw, sacks of corn, bags of fertilizer and odd machines that had been stored in it. It looked enormous now, and the Barnies were very pleased with it.

„We"ve been here plenty of times," they told the children. „It"s the best barn in the district.

We don"t get the best audience, though, because it"s rather a lonely spot here, and there are only two vil ages near enough to send people to see us. Stil , we have a good time, and Mrs Penruthlan gives us a marvel ous supper afterwards!"

„I bet she does!" said Dick, grinning. „I bet that"s why you come to this lonely spot, too, to taste Mrs Penruthlan"s cooking. I don"t blame you. I"d come a good few miles myself!"

A stage had been set up, made of long boards, supported on barrels. A back-cloth had been unrolled and hung over the wooden wal of the barn at the back of the stage. It showed a country scene, and had been painted by the company themselves, bit by bit.

„That"s my bit," said Sid, showing Dick a horse standing in one of the fields painted on the back-cloth. „I had to put old Clopper in! See him?"

The Barnies had plenty of home-made scenery, which they were used to changing several times during their performance. This was all home-made too, and they were very proud of it, especial y some that represented a castle with a tower.

The tower reminded the boys of the one Yan had said he had seen flashing a light the night before. They looked at one another secretly, and Julian nodded slightly. They would certainly watch to see that light themselves. Then they would know for certain whether Grandad and Yan were telling the truth.

Julian wondered if they would have to look out for Mr Penruthlan again that night. Jenny the horse was quite better now, if she had ever been il !, and was out in the fields again.

So Mr Penruthlan had no excuse for creeping about the countryside at night again!

Neither of the boys could imagine what had taken him out the night before, on such a wild night too! Was he meeting somebody? He hadn"t had time to go up to see the shepherd about anything, and there wouldn"t have been much point in that anyway. He had seen Grandad in the morning already.

Mrs Penruthlan came to see the barn now that it was almost ready for the show the next night. She looked red and excited. This was a grand time for her, the Barnies in her barn, the vil agers al coming up the next night, a grand supper to be held afterwards. What an excitement!

She was very busy in her kitchen, cooking, cooking, cooking! Her enormous larder was already ful of the most appetizing looking pies, tarts, hams, brawns and cheeses. The children took turns at looking into it and sniffing in delight. Mrs Penruthlan laughed at them and shooed them out.

„You"l have to help me tomorrow," she said. „Shelling peas, scraping potatoes, stringing beans, picking currants and raspberries, and you"l find hundreds of wild strawberries in the copse, too, which can go to add a flavour to the fruit salad."

„We shall love to help," said Anne. „Al this is grand fun! But surely you aren"t going to do all the supper single-handed, Mrs Penruthlan?"

„Oh, one or two of the vil agers wil stay behind to help me serve it," said the plump little farmer"s wife, who looked as happy as could be in the midst of so much hard work.